


At the Crossroads

by Squickqueen



Series: Opus Diaboli [3]
Category: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Movies), War of the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Insight, Dialogue Light, Gen, I call it the mini crack ship, Jealousy, Light Angst, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Preacher is all: NOTICE ME SENPAI!, Rare Characters, Translation, implied Caesar/Colonel McCullough, this turned out rather cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 04:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14561331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squickqueen/pseuds/Squickqueen
Summary: Even in the darkest of times and coldest of nights you'll find a comforting shoulder to lean on.





	At the Crossroads

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Am Scheideweg](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14351820) by [Squickqueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squickqueen/pseuds/Squickqueen). 



> All thanks go, as usual, to [Talimee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/talimee) for polishing my crappy translations and make them understandable :*

The night approached swiftly at this time of the year, bringing with it frost and the smell of snow. Preacher’s breath wafted like mist in front of his face. Usually the young soldier preferred the warm and bright interior of a tent but today he sat outside. He wanted to be alone, put his thoughts in order and comprehend the eerie feeling of confusion that weighed him down.

Absent minded he toyed with the crossbow on his lap.

Something had changed, here, in this very military camp. Like a draft of cool air, it was hardly noticeable but chilled everyone to the bone. Preacher shivered and massaged his neck with the palm of his hand as if to dispel his unease.

What was it that shook him to the core and made him so restless? What had changed so much during the last few days that he feared his world would fall apart again, like it did twelve years ago, when the simian flu raged over the world?

 _Caesar_ , his mind whispered treacherously, but Preacher shoved the thought aside. No, it was impossible, that a single chimpanzee could bring down the bulwark of human determination Colonel McCullough had created in recent years!

Preacher had been there from the beginning, he had grown up with Alpha-Omega. He, more than anyone else, followed the Colonel, believing and trusting in the older man’s cause, a cause that was worth fighting for. And, yes, also worth dying for.

_The Colonel is a great man!_

Those hadn't been just empty words Preacher had hurled at Caesar, they had come from the bottom of his heart. The young soldier revered the Colonel and believed to understand the self-controlled and tough man better than any other did. Preacher would follow him everywhere, even if the Colonel lead them into the abyss!

At least he had thought so until now. Lately though … the truth was, Preacher had started to doubt his believes. Only recently he had experienced the bestiality of humans and the humanity of apes and it tore his worldview apart!

Preacher looked up and slipped deeper into the shadows, when a group of soldiers marched by, laughing and joking. Not for anyhthing in the world did he want to meet his comrades now, whose cheerfulness in a place like this disturbed him deeply.

He gladly would have liked to talk to the Colonel about his uncertainty, but he did not dare. McCullough had always been a distanced, albeit highly charismatic, superior, objective and dispassionate. After the death of his son, however, this composure had turned into a cold ruthlessness that eradicated everything and everyone that stood in the Colonel’s way of saving humanity. Perhaps the Colonel really believed he could revive the rotting corpse of the past, when humans still sat on the throne and ruled the earth. Preacher did not know.

In his naivety he had thought the same for a while but the years had turned the naïve boy into a bitter man who knew at heart that the old world was lost forever. Nevertheless, he clung to McCullough's promises because he simply had nothing else left to live for.

And now this very bastion of certainty suddenly began to crumble too!

The Colonel had started to act strangely soon after Caesar had fallen into Alpha-Omega’s hands. Preacher had kept to the background, quietly, as was his way, and he didn’t like nor understood what he saw. The Colonel had hunted down the hated enemy for months, just to let him live? Why on earth didn’t the Colonel shoot Caesar in that first night, back in the storehouse? Or at least put him up against a wall later, to quench the soldiers' thirst for revenge? Could it be, that this thoroughly composed man felt the same strange sense of awe that Preacher had experienced when he first met the apes’ leader face to face?

They undoubtedly hated each other, with Caesar tearing Colonel McCullough to shreds if he’d only had the chance, yet Preacher could not help but notice the reluctant respect the Colonel showed his fierce opponent. With Caesar someone had entered his realm, who stood up to him without fear and walked his path as boldly as the Colonel did himself. McCullough may have not noticed it, but Preacher watched and saw how the commander he so adored opened up to Caesar in ways that left the young man surprised and jealous.

Lost in thought, Preacher licked a snowflake from his lips.

How could it be that the Colonel allowed this filthy _monkey_ access to his quarters and spoke to him as if they were equals? None of the soldiers, including Preacher, had ever managed to achieve this.

How could it be that Caesar got his way in the end and the apes their food and water?

Now, Colonel McCullough was no fool. He must have realized that the wall would never be finished in time if his workers died of exhaustion first. Though, Preacher wondered, would the Colonel not have killed anyone else who spoke to him so frankly? Preacher remembered that man – Malcolm – who had approached them back in San Francisco and tried to convince the Colonel to make peace with Caesar. This man had also spoken frankly and appealed to the Colonel’s common sense, but that man had not survived the conversation.

What was different?, Preacher wondered. Was it just the desire to torture? Curiosity? Fascination? And why did the Colonel’s chilly pride he used to intimidate and keep his soldiers at a distance unexpectedly start to melt away when it came to Caesar? McCullough seemed to seek the chimp’s company in an unsettling way, even touching him where he kept everyone else at bay.

Deep in thought, Preacher chewed on the inside of his cheek, staring dead ahead without noticing the snowflakes dissolving as soon as they touched the ground.

When did he notice the way the Colonel looked at Caesar for the first time and whished, he’d be in the chimpanzee’s place?

_Crazy …_

Preacher jolted out of his spinning thoughts, when the shadow of a gorilla blocked out the searchlight. Surprised, he raised his head and sprang to his feet, lifting his crossbow in a threating manner, before he recognized the gorilla and lowered the weapon.

It was Red.

The impressive gorilla with the striking, reddish fur was as surprised as Preacher and stopped dead in his tracks. Pacifying, he raised his hands, only for Preacher to notice the chain Red was holding. Was he on his way to the cross where Caesar was tied up? Or did he come from there? Strange, how everything these days seemed to revolve around Caesar, as if he were the center of something big. Or the eye of the storm.

Preacher sat down again and placed the crossbow next to him on the ground. Briefly he pondered, finally scooting over, beckoning Red to sit down. At first the gorilla hesitated, but then he followed the invitation. Silently they sat next to each other, the young man and the massive gorilla, while around them the camp slowly disappeared under what was the first snow.

“Snow cold … why Preacher … outside? Alone?”

At the sound of the deep voice, Preacher raised his head in surprise for the second time. He didn’t expect Red to start a conversation, but here he sat and looked at the young man rather curiously. Preacher crawled deeper into his jacket as if he felt the cold only after Red had mentioned it to him. He shrugged.

“Just wanted to be alone.”

“Should … go?”

Preacher hesitated. Truth to be told, he had become so accustomed to the presence of the red furred turncoat that right now he preferred his silent company to that of his human comrades. Preacher wondered whether Red had made similar observations like he did during the last few days, since the gorilla had been assigned as Caesar's personal guard - a job he carried out with malicious delight. Whatever the reason for Red’s aversions towards the chimpanzee, the thought of Red being unsure of his loyalties was, in a way, reassuring.

“No, stay.”

Red hummed. A noise Preacher couldn’t read for the life of him. Worried, he looked aside as their arms touched, but there was no sign of threat in Red's demeanor. On the contrary, Preacher had never seen the serious gorilla so relaxed. Red looked upwards, where the snowflakes floated gently down from the sky. They landed on his nose, his brows, lips and ears and in his fur. Suddenly Preacher felt as if he had a lump in his throat.

12 years ago, the world as he knew it had ceased to exist. Nothing remained. Not his family, not his friends, neither his beloved comics, nor the money he had carefully put aside to one day buy the bike he had always wanted. He would never go to prom, never play Overwatch with his friends again all night long, never again smell the scent of fresh popcorn at the cinema. Dust and ashes were all that remained of his past. And dust and ashes would be his future.

And now he was sitting here next to Red, who, intentionally or not, benefited from his misery and instead of hatred Preacher only felt a fathomless emptiness. Who was he kidding? He was no stoic fighter like Colonel McCullough, who was constantly driven forward by his fanatism. He was exhausted, an emotionally shattered creature without perspective. What was the point of all this?

Preacher leaned gently against Red's massive shape. He felt the gorilla flinch when he touched him, but nothing more happened. Red’s fur was rough, wet from the snow and smelly, but behind it waited warmth and the surprising notion of comfort. It felt good to lean against someone and, at least for a little while, to share the invisible burden on one’s shoulders, regardless of whether this someone was a beefy gorilla. There was no one left in this cursed world for him to lean on, Preacher thought bitterly.

_Rest, just a little rest …_

“Preacher!”

The young soldier pushed Red back as if he had burned himself on the fiery red fur and sprang to his feet. Not a second too soon! By now Boyle came round the corner. The gangly soldier stopped when he noticed Preacher and Red, his mouth splitting into a mean grin, giving him the look of a rabid dog. Preacher got goose bumps. Boyle was so unpredictable and choleric that he posed a potential danger to everyone. Better not to irritate the man but stay out of his way.

“Well, well! Am I interrupting your date, _Donkey-Lover_?”

“Shut up, Boyle!”

Boyle only laughed spiteful and continued: "Hey, the Colonel wants to talk to you. Don't keep him waiting and bring _your_ Donkey along. That bastard monkey won't last much longer. If we're lucky, we'll be rid of him soon enough.”

Preacher knew, of course, that Boyle spoke of none other than Caesar. A faint ray of hope stirred in him. If the chimpanzee was no more, maybe there was still a chance for a happy ending? A bright future for humanity? Red murmured behind him - satisfied? Preacher could not say with absolute certainty. Silently he shouldered the crossbow.

"Follow me, Donkey," Preacher ordered coarsely without even looking at the gorilla.

Suddenly he was ashamed of the weakness he had shown towards Red. He was human and proud of it! He belonged to Alpha-Omega, the last bulwark of humankind! Shouldn't that be enough for him?

Preacher took a deep breath and straightened his back. He followed Boyle with steady steps to where the Colonel was waiting for him, Red trailing behind him. What remained were two empty seats and snow, which by now had turned into rain.

 

~The End~


End file.
